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The Problem Behind a Viral Video of a Persistent Baby Bear (theatlantic.com)
Ed Yong, writing for The Atlantic: For many people, a two-and-a-half-minute video of a baby brown bear trying to scale a snow-covered mountain was a life-affirming testament to the power of persistence. As it begins, the cub is standing with its mother on the side of a perilously steep ridge. The mother begins walking across, and despite slipping a few times on the loose snow, she soon reaches the top. Her cub, following tentatively after her, isn't so fortunate. It loses its footing and slides several feet. It pulls itself together and reattempts the ascent, before slipping again.
Finally, the cub nears the top. But as the footage zooms in to focus on the moment of reunion, the mother inexplicably swipes at the youngster with her paw, sending it hurtling downward again. It slides a long way, scrabbling for purchase and finding some just before it hits a patch of bare rock. Once again, it starts to climb, and after what seems like a nail-biting eternity for anyone watching, it reaches its mother. The two walk away.
The video was uploaded to the ViralHog YouTube channel on Friday, and after being shared on Twitter, it rapidly went viral. At the time of this writing, it has been watched 17 million times. The cub's exploits were equal parts gif, nature documentary, and motivational poster. It had all the elements of an incredible story: the most adorable of protagonists, rising and falling action (literally), and a happy ending. It was a tale of tenacity in the face of adversity, triumph against the odds. But when biologists started watching the video, they saw a very different story.
The video, they say, was clearly captured by a drone. And in it, they saw the work of an irresponsible drone operator who, in trying to film the bears, drove them into a dangerous situation that almost cost the cub its life. "I found it really hard to watch," says Sophie Gilbert, an ecologist at the University of Idaho who studies, among other things, how drones affect wildlife. "It showed a pretty stark lack of understanding from the drone operator of the effects that his actions were having on the bears." (It wasn't just scientists, either; several drone pilots were also dismayed by the footage.)
Finally, the cub nears the top. But as the footage zooms in to focus on the moment of reunion, the mother inexplicably swipes at the youngster with her paw, sending it hurtling downward again. It slides a long way, scrabbling for purchase and finding some just before it hits a patch of bare rock. Once again, it starts to climb, and after what seems like a nail-biting eternity for anyone watching, it reaches its mother. The two walk away.
The video was uploaded to the ViralHog YouTube channel on Friday, and after being shared on Twitter, it rapidly went viral. At the time of this writing, it has been watched 17 million times. The cub's exploits were equal parts gif, nature documentary, and motivational poster. It had all the elements of an incredible story: the most adorable of protagonists, rising and falling action (literally), and a happy ending. It was a tale of tenacity in the face of adversity, triumph against the odds. But when biologists started watching the video, they saw a very different story.
The video, they say, was clearly captured by a drone. And in it, they saw the work of an irresponsible drone operator who, in trying to film the bears, drove them into a dangerous situation that almost cost the cub its life. "I found it really hard to watch," says Sophie Gilbert, an ecologist at the University of Idaho who studies, among other things, how drones affect wildlife. "It showed a pretty stark lack of understanding from the drone operator of the effects that his actions were having on the bears." (It wasn't just scientists, either; several drone pilots were also dismayed by the footage.)
don't worry, before too long there won't be any are bears.
If people are killing themselves to get a selfie, imagine when their own life is not at stake. Humans suck.
So viral I can't even see it.
I don't think that writer knows the meaning of the word.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
Who cares? Was the baby bear running hibernate? That would explain the persistence
Better than going through life not giving a damn about anything.
No sig today...
There's nothing quite like seeing animals in all their majesty while they run away from all the loud shit with cameras. Yep, that's some real appreciation.
If you enjoy a charming viral video that's normal. If you enjoy watching it knowing that the film maker traumatized and risked the lives of the subjects to make the viral video you are some sort of dark triad monster.
If I wanted to read shitty Twitter wars, I'd go to Twitter. Jesus, the whole press is infected with reporting on Tweets.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Or we could watch something shot by one of the many actual wildlife photographers and not some dunce with a new toy.
That's an easy comment to make when you're not a baby bear trying to climb a mountain to get away from people trying to "care".
It's be great to have drones for all of the utility they could offer, but irresponsible operators keeps that from happening. The drone community is sabotaging itself.
They usually try to get shit going by provocation (or by making a mountain out of a molehill). What is different here? That just bears and not humans are put in peril?
The point was that you can do so without harassing the wildlife if you know the correct methodologies.
ESL? 'Shooting' footage or photos is a common verb. He's not referring to killing the animals with bullets or arrows.
This. Human interaction with almost any other species, whether direct like this video or indirect like anthropogenic environmental change, is the single greatest impact on that species' trend toward flourishing or extinction.
It seems that cattle are an outbreak species, and the great bears are doomed.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
ESL? 'Shooting' footage or photos is a common verb. He's not referring to killing the animals with bullets or arrows.
Meh, mostly I just tend to read things bit too literally. Works good when reviewing requirements, less so with other reading.
It's not miserable if you have something more than tissue-paper thin skin.
"Old man yells at systemd"
You obviously did not watch the whole video. At 1:13 of the video, the drone clearly moves towards them, the mother bear looks directly at it, freaks out and swipes. After that, the drone backs off. It's likely the drone operator knew what they did which is why they didn't move the drone toward them again until after the baby bear was safe at the top.
On the internet, you must be explicit. Most people on the internet are ESL.
Just like most people on the internet don't understand the affects of a drone on wildlife. No matter what we are doing to nature, scaring the shit out of a bear and endangering a cub is not a good way to go about promoting green.
And a lot of dyslexics too. I think that tends to be the cause of the scatter brained academic image. While I'm a full time software dev and part time PHD student, dyslexia often tends to result in me reading something and my mind going off on the wrong track with it (usually reading something too literally, while other times I pick up subtle meanings fine). After a while you learn to get used to saying the wrong thing or double checking what people tell you, though double checking is a bit more difficult on slashdot...
I originally thought the poster was being sarcastic and was agreeing in a sarcastic manner that shooting (with guns) is not a wonderful alternative, rather than noting it meant shooting with cameras. Hopefully at least my intent that treating wildlife with respect came across, even if everything else was said wrong.
With how hard sarcasm is to convey between humans in text form, I have to imagine that it'll be the mark of a successful AI when we can make sarcastic jokes back and forth. Perhaps a misunderstood joke will be what sets Skynet off!
Because it's exploring the impacts of emerging technology on the world?
The drone-cretin should at the very least be heavily fined for this.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
how do you know the drone operator didn't just zoom in?
Based on what exactly?
They have eyes and working intelligence. You seem to be lacking either or both.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
It's pretty clear that we're either dealing with an "EditorBot" or msmash doesn't grasp the language nearly well enough to perform this role.
1:15ish, the drone flys quickly into the action as the baby bear nears the top shortening the distance by at least half if not 3/4 in a couple of seconds. It seems clear to me that the mother can see the drone coming at them at speed. She looks repeatedly at the camera to her baby and back again. As the drone gets quite close she swipes at her baby to get it out the path of an unknown danger.
Lets look at some numbers. If it was very far away as you think then that's what? 300m? And lets be conservative with my figures and say it traveled 2/3rds of the distance in 3 seconds then that's 237kph or 147mph. That's unrealistic. The top speed of an average drone is around 50mph. At that speed it would have been 100m out and traveled 66m in 3 seconds.
But that's top speed, lets say it was moving at 20mph, that puts it 40m out and zooming in to around 13meters.
So, something you don't understand making a loud buzzing coming at you. Remember because of the doppler effect, the noise will increase in volume and pitch as it gets closer. Which would you prefer? 50mph and stopping 33meters/yards from the most precious person in your life in a dangerous situation or coming at you at 20 mph and pulling up around 13meters/yards?
This story belongs in the pages of "Chicken Poop for the Soul"
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
The foreground moves out of camera shot faster than the background indicating the camera is getting nearer. Zoom makes the foreground and background bigger by the same rate.
You didn't take the word "photographer" literally.
Don't make excuses for sloppiness in your communications. Fix it.
Sure, just as soon as Slashdot communication effects anything important I'll focus on correcting my communications here like I do in places where it is important. Also will do more when they let me make easy corrections like in places where my communication is important.
One of my neighbors uploaded a video they captured of porch pirates on Halloween stealing an amazon package; ViralHog stole it, then reported the *original* as a copyright violation
Black bears scare easily. Human noises, breaking branches, and or talking loudly/yelling could all have had a similar affect. In fact making noises while walking in bear country to startle and alert any bears in the area is considered the safe thing to do. It is a survival instinct that helps them not be hunted by humans or other large predators. To the people so worried about inflicting horror on these mammals, they should avoid going into the woods entirely.
You can't post a funny video of any animal without some hysterical nutcases freaking out.
Put a gun on that drone - shoot the bear
Excellent idea. Because any gun that you could mount on a consumer grade drone would wouldn't be powerful enough to be more than a minor annoyance for an adult brown bear. And any gun that would be powerful enough would be too heavy and large to get the drone off of the ground.
If you ever got out of your mom's basement you'd know that you don't fuck with a bear, and that goes doubly so for a female that has cubs. Other than in areas where there are tigers and polar bear, there is nothing that is a threat to them, besides well armed humans. Most handguns don't have enough power to get to their organs, and their skull is thick enough that they won't penetrate that either. Shooting a bear with a handgun will more often than not, end up pissing off the bear and get you killed.
Bingo. The difference when presented with the same evidence between what an amateur sees and what a professional sees. It just emphasis the story more in that people are ignorant about the consequences of their actions, and more importantly resistance about being educated about their ignorance. Now all we need to make the circle complete is blaming the animals for not recognizing our benign intentions. Now who are the stewards of the planet again? Certainly not the animals.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
You appear to not possess the concept of humor, specifically the "double meaning"
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
You obviously did not watch the whole video. At 1:13 of the video, the drone clearly moves towards them, the mother bear looks directly at it, freaks out and swipes. After that, the drone backs off. It's likely the drone operator knew what they did which is why they didn't move the drone toward them again until after the baby bear was safe at the top.
:) I watched the original viral video, which didn't show that sequence. I couldn't see the (full) video posted in this article because it's unavailable for my location (USA).
Sounds like I'm full of shit then
Have gnu, will travel.
shhhh, Skynet is watching! Apologize now!
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Good idea, lets appreciate the animals by not caring and the corporations can go in and destroy their habitat... oh wait, that seems to happen either way.
US forest coverage has increased dramatically in the past 100 years, as almost our our farmland has been reclaimed, thanks to evil corporations and their evil technology.
Worldwide, forest coverage is a net increase of a few percent over the past 30 years, as clearcutting in third world nations is counterbalanced by growth in modern nations full of evil corporations.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
One of the best options to cutting the noise of a drone down is building larger slower fans and installing them in a ducted fans.
But of course this situation is nothing really to do about the wildlife as much as it is a bunch of concern trolls trying to shit on the drone community because of a viral video.
The tilt downwards at 0:45 also gives you a very good sense of just how close they are. It's very close.
Being constantly angry or being apathetic are not the only options.
It is possible to care deeply about things without that care being expressed as anger.
In fact, I would propose that if you define "caring" as getting angry at those things that oppose that for which you care, that it isn't really caring at all, but something far darker.
Check your premises.
Sure it's qualitative, but 9/10's my witness of drone operators is them behaving badly, irresponsibly, selfishly in some manner. Some recent ones:
-Park ranger at a beach had to tell a guy to put away his drone, the changing stalls were open air / roofless.
-Couple (not me) having a quiet, romantic moment on a lookout in Hawaii, buzzed by drone and clearly annoyed by it.
-Also in Hawaii, different location, drone flying up high while tour helicopter crossed ridge. I'm guessing it wasn't really as close to an accident as it looked to me, but certainly a danger.
-National park hiking trail, 2 miles from trailhead at a waterfall. Again, a quiet contemplative place...nope bzzz of drone.
-Above kids playground...wtf?
Short story, amateur operators suck
Harrassing local wildlife is not "minding your own business."
Your comment is incorrect. By definition of this being an unmanned drone; this is not direct interaction. It was done through a proxy of a DRONE, which is neither direct interaction with or interaction with a human. Audibly the bear heard the drone. That is the extent of the interaction. He wasn't spoken to, fed, tranquilized, played music, grabbed, raped, molested, or shot.
Have you ever been surprised or scared by a bear or a mountain lion? They can and do scare humans. Should they be treated as vile mammals for such heinous activities? Would you demand an apology from the mountain lion that scared you and made you uncomfortable and was your instinct to put your children out of harms way? DO you write off the species for menacing innocent humans walking through a slot canyon? Are humans an outbreak species?
Then do the other species of the world a favor and off yourself.
So.. what's wrong with caring? What's wrong with having empathy? Why would lack of concern for the feelings of others be considered a good thing?
I mean, I didn't cry for the bear, it didn't "affect" me, I just rolled my eyes at the thoughtlessness of the drone operator, figure he and all of us learned a lesson, and moved on. That's not crying. It's grumbling, but I don't see anyone crying.
These days, most people trying to document and shoot on film try to be careful that their very presence does not alter the behavior of those they study. This was not the case of the drone operator, whose work affected the behavior of the bears. This has been a common problem through nature documentaries through the years. Some of our misconception of lemmings, that they commit mass suicide, was propagated by producers of a 1950s Disney documentary who brought the lemmings to the edge of a cliff and pushed them off. You're not really getting realistic behavior when you stage the behavior you think should be happening (lemmings do jump into the sea when their populations grow too large, but it's not suicide, it's to swim to the other side of a channel to settle on land there).
Not bears.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
Hey despite everyone's best attempts no state has so far made it illegal to be a useless dick. You're safe for the foreseeable future.
LMFAO, perhaps as a non-bot you should expand your vocabulary a bit.
It's OK Bender, there's no such thing as 2.
*affects
It's OK Bender, there's no such thing as 2.
*affects
I wondered how long it would take someone to comment on that!
Might be, if I'm hungry.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Oh Russian Roulette is your game ?
True that. Those bleedin' heart assholes over at YouTube claimed my hilarious "fluffy dog on fire" video was against their ToS, even though it was my neighbor that doused the pooch in gasoline, I only tossed the zippo.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yes. I just aim the gun at the asshole instead of me.
Yeah, I cheat. So what?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Most handguns work fine. https://www.ammoland.com/2018/...
Yes. I just aim the gun at another asshole instead of me.
Fixed that for you.
Whatever, he dies, my problems are solved.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yeah if you really want your problems solved best point the gun at yourself.